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Everything you want to know about the Nike Covert Driver

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No company has boosted its stock more in 2013 than Nike Golf. Example: Viral Discussion about the new Covert Driver

A big part of the company’s image change has been the signing of the No. 1-ranked golfer in the world, Rory McIlroy, as well as Nick Watney and Kyle Stanley. But another piece of the puzzle has been the company’s VR_S Covert driver, which is one of the most talked about new golf clubs for 2013.

Nike says the crater of mass the company removed from driver’s sole moves helps move the club’s center of gravity more forward, which makes the forgiving than other drivers. The Covert’s adjustable hosel also allows golfers to adjust both face angle and loft. Check out the video below — an in-depth interview with Gidge Moody, product line manager for Nike Golf — which reveals everything you need to know about the new VR_S Covert and VR_S Covert Tour drivers.

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[youtube id=”k-YbgT4FLBo” width=”620″ height=”360″]

Click here to see all the photos in the Nike Gallery

Viral Discussion about the new Covert Driver

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27 Comments

27 Comments

  1. Legal Help

    Aug 17, 2013 at 10:13 am

    Without doubt, Apple’s application shop is victorious by a mile. It’s a huge selection of a variety of applications vs a rather unfortunate selection of a handful with regard to Microsoft zune. Ms has ideas, specially in the arena of games, but I’m unsure I’d wish to wager around the future if this element is important for you. The iPod is really a much better choice in that case.

  2. Andy

    Aug 1, 2013 at 10:11 am

    Did anyone ever consider that certain people like certain clubs or hit certain clubs better?

  3. Pingback: Clubfitting, custom clubs, doppler analysis

  4. KT

    Feb 23, 2013 at 12:32 pm

    I Hated Nike gear, until now. Let me start by saying I love to play new clubs. In the past few years I have played 909D2, Ping G10, G15, G20, and I20 with a VTS shaft upgrade, Taylor made R11 with a Matrix Radix X shaft, a Cleveland and Cobra Amp and have hit countless others. Currently I play MIURA 501CB’s IRONS which I will never get rid of. Needless to say I like good golf equipment. With only one round on my Nike Covert it’s the best driver I’ve played in the past 5 years hands down! I Loved this driver!!

  5. J

    Feb 18, 2013 at 5:53 pm

    Hate Nike gear… Hate it. Always have. Searching for a particular shaft now after hitting the Covert.. Love it. Hands down, love it. Still going to game a Cobra Amp Cell… But this will be in the stable for sure. And will seriously find some playing time.

  6. Geoff Callow

    Feb 18, 2013 at 6:37 am

    Having got more confidence in my swing following a series of lessons and lots more practice over last 6 months to try and get my h/c down from 19 (need to hand some cards in but I am guessing will be at least a couple of shots better) I went to replace my old Nicklaus driver with a new one this weekend and got custom fitted. Did not get on with the TaylorMade RB2 or the new Ping and for me clearly best were the Callaway XHot and the Covert. Hit it well with both but got less sidespin and a better launch angle, plus more distance more consistently with the Covert so went for that. It really is a nice club and look forward to playing with it on course and seeing if it delivers!!

  7. Eramus Tilley

    Feb 16, 2013 at 3:27 am

    I’ve been testing the VR-S Tour for the last few rounds I’ve played and have been absolutely roping it. Definitely going to put one in the bag. Great club. Loft adjustability is unparalleled and the whole thing is clean despite the red paint and swoosh.

  8. paul

    Feb 15, 2013 at 10:50 pm

    I tried the tour model today. also tried the g25 and the callaway xhot. g25 longer and straighter then the Nike. Nike felt heavy. Ping g25 had faster club head speed by 3-5 miles per hour.

  9. Bill Gabbert

    Feb 11, 2013 at 9:09 am

    I agree with some of the post here but this is what I think. Most big OEMs pay a lot of money for the pros to play their stuff, thats fine. But most weekend golfers will never get the potential of any of this equipment. I was one of the guys who had to have all the newest, greatest stuff coming out each year. But I releazied over the years I was shooting lower scores because I figured I had the best stuff out there so I didn’t have to practice. Wrong. Started taking some lessons and practiced a lot more and BAM, I got better. And that was with 4 year old equipment. So IMHO, get fit by a qualified fitter and take some lessons and get off the couch and practice, this will save you some money in the long run and make you a better player, IMHO.

    • Bill Gabbert

      Feb 11, 2013 at 9:11 am

      Meant to say I wasn’t shooting lower score.Sorry.

  10. tim

    Feb 10, 2013 at 11:58 pm

    had covert for two weeks now….hands down best driver ive hit in last 5yrs… ball speed up spin down and ss up as well…gain 15yds with a higher loft setting than ive used since i was 12…dont knock it bc you dont like nike bc of who they endorse… been hitting all nike clubs for 6yrs now… true nike golfers know how good products are all the rest of you can fall in line with taylormade and all the other bs products out there….long live tiger and rory

  11. Kris

    Feb 9, 2013 at 4:50 pm

    Bought it today. Love it. Was 104 ss, went to 108 with this, and got Performance head with KK Silver 60g X shaft, and went dead straight all the time, 10+ yards farther than any other club I hit but the XHot, which was as long but much higher dispersion.

  12. lloyd

    Feb 2, 2013 at 6:19 pm

    IVE HAD A CHANCE TO HIT THE COVERT TOUR DRIVER AND I WAS VERY IMPRESSED THE RED CROWN IS NICE ITS NOT A BRIGHT RED BUT LIKE A DARK CANDY APPLE AND AT ADDRESS YOU DONT NOTICE THE SWOOSH EVEN THO IT LOOKS COOL. I TESTED IT AGAINST THE TITLEIST 913D3 AND THE TAYLORMADE R1 ON TRACKMAN THE NUMBERS WAS GOOD BUT THE BEST THING IS IT FELT SOLID AND BETWEEN THE TITLEIST AND THE COVERT IF I WAS BLIND FOLDED I WOULD BE ABBLE TO TELL THE DIFFRENCE BOTH PRODUCED THE SAME NUMBERS. WHICH WAS BOTH 25 YARDS LONGER THAN THE R1. THE R1 WAS VERY LOUD ON IMPACT BUT THE COVERT HAD A NICE DEEP SOUND AS YOU WOULD GET WITH A TITLEIST. BUT SAYING THAT IVE READ OTHER REVIEWS ON THE COVERT SAYING ITS JUST LIKE THE TITLEIST 913 WHICH IN MY BOOK IS ONLY A GOOD THING

  13. Bill Henwood

    Jan 31, 2013 at 11:52 am

    I know the concept of a cavity back wood works because I patented it back in the early 90’s for the then Toney Penna Golf Company as The Innovator. Jack Nicklaus started playing it at the 1992 AT&T National Pro Am and liked the driver so well he acquired the company from Nathaniel Crosby and Nelson Doubleday, forming Nicklaus Golf.

    There is no doubt the concept produces a boring launch with less spin. The further back the CG is placed increases launch but produces more spin, even at lower lofts. The real benefit is that the cavity produces increased heel and toe weighting thus making the head more stable at impact. I know and worked with Nike’s top engineer, Tom Stites for several years and I’m quite sure he has fined-tuned this new model to maximum performance. I’m also sure that this could also become a category killer this season.

  14. Preston

    Jan 28, 2013 at 6:32 pm

    Nike has done nothing but produce sweat shop crap for years. The only reason they can continue to push this stuff on us is because they have so much money from apparel. It also doesn’t hurt when the worlds 1 and 2 play them. Nike will never get a dime of mine but they could give me 200 million to miss cuts. Ill spend my money on real golf companies I.e (titleist and ping )
    Good luck selling this crap on eBay to all the red driver guys

    P

    • CTplayer

      Jan 29, 2013 at 2:32 am

      If they’re so crappy then why are you reading this site!?!

    • footwedge

      Jan 29, 2013 at 2:56 pm

      Titleist and Ping – also mostly from sweat shops.

  15. Danny

    Jan 28, 2013 at 9:52 am

    The only thing that helps a hook or a slice is practice. Also, every year drivers get longer and longer. They say “this is 15 yards longer than 2012” well at that rate everyone will be hitting 350 yard bombs if they keep it up. Stop wasting money on these clubs and take a lesson.

    And while I’m at it.. Who gives a crap about hitting irons and fairway woods +20 yards further than xxx. Don’t people want precision? Who cares whether you hit a 8 iron or 4 iron from 170 as long as its straight. These manufacturers are marketing to people that are in search of the wrong things.

    I’m only being 1/2 serious with this but some of what I spew may be true

  16. Danny

    Jan 28, 2013 at 7:21 am

    Seriously, does anyone believe Nike’s claims? Every product they make has claims that aren’t true. Jordan’s make you jump higher, uniforms make a team faster, square drivers make the ball go straighter (yet that technology only lasted a year), or irons that have slingshotting ability.

    Nike is a marketing company that pays billions to market to dreamers who think that buying their items will improve your sport. They got into golf and paid the two biggest names because golf is full of weekend dreamers who think that buying a shiny driver is their path to lower scores. The fact is, this technology will last a year or two and those same people will be next in line for the latest and greatest stuff Nike “created”

    • Chad

      Jan 28, 2013 at 8:17 am

      Believe what you want. I have hit these Coverts on a launch montior and all I can say is WOW and this coming from a lifetime Nike detractor.

      • Tim

        Feb 28, 2013 at 6:24 am

        Yep…..I will be 1 of the 1st in Aust to test and have the performance version in my bag. They are a game changer…..no marketing bull 🙂

      • ce ECE

        Jun 5, 2013 at 7:35 pm

        very heavy. if you are under 40 and really accomplished then it is very nice. for a scratch who has lost a bit of velocity at 45, it is heavy and the driver kick point will take work on range to time with a new tempo.

        ECE

    • CTplayer

      Jan 29, 2013 at 2:31 am

      Didn’t you notice that almost all technology only last a year or 2, or should I say, evolves! That’s why it’s called science because it keeps changing… unless maybe you’re still using an 8 track tape or a dial-up modem!

    • Cliff

      Feb 15, 2013 at 2:19 pm

      And this makes them different from other major golf equipment manufacturers how?

  17. Michael

    Jan 28, 2013 at 12:34 am

    Someone explains physics to me. Most OEMs say they move more weight to the parameter, hence moving COG backward and making the club more forgiving. Now, Nike says they moves COG forward, thus making the club more forgiving.

    Kudos to Nike. I love innovation. Just someone please explains physics part to me.

    • Kris

      Jan 29, 2013 at 2:14 pm

      I believe COG is more to do with launch and spin. Moving mass to the perimeter is to widen the sweet spot and add more forgiveness to non-centre hits.

      Physics-wise, when mass is toward the perimeter there is more behind the ball when it hits toward the edge. Imagine throwing a bar-bell hard(ish, not enough to break anything badly) at a 2×4 hanging vertically in a doorway, but that one side has a 1kg weight and the other side 5kg (same size bells). 1st you throw it so that the 5kg end hits the 2×4. Then you replace it with a new 2×4 and throw again with the same velocity but so the 1kg end hits the wood. Which will do more damage to the wood? The 5kg bell end of course. Why? Because more weight is behind the strike (the overall mass/energy hasn’t changed, just the placement relative to the impact). When the 1kg end hits, most of the energy goes around the 2×4. In fact, I bet if you did this experiment, my hypothesis is that at a certain energy/velocity, the 5kg end hitting would die and land just beside the 2×4 (maybe a tad behind), whereas the 1kg strike would spin away and end up well behind the 2×4 and a fair bit to the side. For a golf ball, on off centre hits with tradition clubs it’s like hitting with the 1kg end; much of the energy goes into twisting the club and not accelerating the ball. With perimeter weighted clubs, it’s like hitting with the 5kg end; there will be some loss of energy, but not nearly as much.

      Sorry for the inelegant example.

      P.S. If club companies were really smart (for forgiveness on left/right misses AND high/low ones), they’d have clubs where 90% of the mass was split between heel/toe/sole/crown and all of it at the compass point extremes. Imagine very thin blade irons with globs of lead on the very centre top, centre bottom, tip of the toe, and tip of the heel. Ugly as Mick Jagger in a tutu, but would be forgiving.

  18. kcslonghitter

    Jan 27, 2013 at 10:21 pm

    I went to the Nike booth at the PGA show and I was amazed that the standard weight on the new covert heads where around 205 gram. the club felt real solid like a players club and not a consumer Model

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Equipment

Q&A: Martin Trainer on his Bobby Grace “Greg Chalmers” putter, 6.5-degree driver, and “butter knife” 2-iron

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As unbiasedly as I can put it, Martin Trainer has one of the coolest club setups in professional golf. (At some point soon, I’ll put together a top-10 list of “coolest club setups on Tour,” but I know that Trainer will be in the top-10)

What a lineup. He plays a 6.5-degree Wilson prototype driver, a 13-degree Wilson prototype 3-wood, a true blade Wilson Staff Model 2-iron, and a Bobby Grace “Greg Chalmers Commemorative” putter!

 

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I mean, look at this 2-iron from address…

To quote the great author R.L. Stine: “Goosebumps.”

On Wednesday at the 2024 Texas Children’s Houston Open, I caught up with Trainer to learn more about his bag setup.

Here’s what he had to say:

You have the Internet going crazy over your bag setup, and your putter. Where’d you pick the Bobby Grace-Greg Chalmers putter up? How long have you had it?

MT: This was from when Bobby Grace came to my course in California: Cal Club. And for whatever reason, they just started having them in the shop. So then I took my buddy’s, started using it, and made, like, a million putts in a row, which is how every putter story begins, I guess.

And then, I bought a couple of my own, used it for years, got to the Tour with it, won on Tour with it (the 2019 Puerto Rico Open). Then, about a year later, started using another putter, did that for a couple years, but now it’s back in the bag.

When did it come back in the bag?

MT: December of this past year. So a few months ago.

What year would you say was the first time you threw that in the bag, or, like, when you bought it?

MT: God…Probably, 2016, maybe? 2018?

Do you remember how much you paid for it?

MT: I don’t know, actually. Maybe $100-150 bucks or something. I think that’s the only golf club I’ve bought between high school and now. Well, two, since I bought two of them.

The driver is interesting, too. What went into the prototyping process?

MT: That was a version of the current driver, but it was the prototype that they first came out with for Tour guys to try. And for whatever reason, I just never switched out to the new one.

It’s just 6.5 degrees, right?

MT: Yeah. Very low loft, yeah.

What kind of ball speed do you have with that these days?

MT: Like high 170’s.

Yeah, that’ll work. And then a 2-iron blade? We’re seeing fewer and fewer of those out here.

MT: Yeah. The butter knife.

Very cool thing to have in the bag. Have you done any testing with driving irons? 

MT: Yeah, I used to have a thicker one, but it was a little offset, and I never hit it that well. And then finally, I started messing around with the butter knife. And I remember the first time I looked down at it, I was terrified. And then I ended up getting used to it, putting it in play, and it’s been in place since. It’s a pretty good club for me.

How far do you carry that? 

MT: Like 235.

A good little wind club, I’m sure.

MTL Yeah, exactly. I can hit it very low. It’s great.

I love it. You have people shook looking at that. Thanks for the time, man. 

MT: Absolutely.

To see more photos and discussion of Trainer’s bag, click here.

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Coolest thing for sale in the GolfWRX Classifieds (3/28/24): L.A.B. Golf Mezz.1 Max Broomstick with LA Golf Paige Spiranac shaft

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At GolfWRX, we are a community of like-minded individuals that all experience and express our enjoyment of the game in many ways.

It’s that sense of community that drives day-to-day interactions in the forums on topics that range from best driver to what marker you use to mark your ball. It even allows us to share another thing we all love – buying and selling equipment.

Currently, in our GolfWRX buy/sell/trade (BST) forum, there is a listing for a L.A.B. Golf Mezz.1 Max Broomstick putter with LA Golf Paige Spiranac shaft.

From the seller: (@hibcam): “L.A.B. GOLF Mezz.1 Max Broomstick- LA Golf Paige Spiranac Shaft- 44″/79.5. Brand new, never used brown leather cover. The head was professionally anodized from Orange to Blue (Orange looked bad with the Pink shaft so I had it changed). Only a few rounds on this combo. Please see last pic- slight ding on back corner. 8.5-10 condition. THE SHAFT COST $475/ THE PUTTER $625. $799 shipped in the US. ONLY $699 SHIPPED.”

To check out the full listing in our BST forum, head through the link: L.A.B. Golf Mezz.1 Max Broomstick with LA Golf Paige Spiranac shaft

This is the most impressive current listing from the GolfWRX BST, and if you are curious about the rules to participate in the BST Forum you can check them out here: GolfWRX BST Rules

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Spotted: Tony Finau’s driver shaft change at the 2024 Texas Children’s Houston Open

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Tony Finau has always been known as one of the longest players on the PGA Tour, but he has recently been working on adding a little more distance. Last year, Finau averaged 118.3 mph club head speed and 178.08 mph ball speed, all while playing a Mitsubishi Diamana D+ Limited 70 TX driver shaft. This year, he has increased his club head speed to 123.93 mph and his ball speed to 183.32 mph.

However, Finau’s overall distance has decreased by two yards in that time. From a fitting perspective, something was amiss. We asked Tony about the shaft change at the Texas Children’s Hospital Open.

“[I’m seeing] better numbers with the spin. My driver’s been a little high spin for me over the last month or so, and so I just figured it was time to probably check out the equipment,” Finau said. “And it definitely showed me that I was using a shaft that’s maybe a little too tip-stiff for me, the way I load the club now. [I’m seeing] better numbers with the spin.”

Finau switched from the Mitsubishi Diamana D+ Limited 70 TX into the Diamana GT 70 TX. The newer Diamana GT has a slightly different profile than the D+ Limited with the stiffest handle section in the Diamana lineup. The mid sections between the two are similar stiffness but the tip is just slightly stiffer in the Diamana GT. Both shafts are within one gram of each other in the 70 TX. The torque rating on the GT is 0.1 higher than the D+Limited’s 2.7 measurement.

Mitsubishi lists the Diamana GT as a shaft between the mid-launching Diamana TB and the new low-launch Diamana WB shafts. For most players, it would be considered a mid/low launch and low-spin shaft option. Mitsubishi’s Xlink Tech Resin System makes sure the maximum carbon fiber content is there for smooth feel without reducing the strength of the shaft. MR70 carbon fiber is used for reinforcing the shaft and boron is used in the tip for its high strength and compression properties.

Finau is still using his trusty Ping G430 LST driver in 9 degrees and has the adjustable hosel set to -1 degree of loft (standard lie angle). Finau’s long-time favorite Lamkin UTX Green grip is installed. He definitely has a few extra wraps of tape under that grip as you can see the bulge down where the grip meets the shaft.

One final note: Per Ping’s PGA Tour rep Kenton Oates, Finau’s driver is also adjusted to play with an additional degree of loft to help dial in his desired launch.

We’ll see how he fares with the new setup this week in Houston!

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